Accel reportedly in talks to lead $1B round for Thinking Machines at $40B valuation
The high-profile startup's annual revenue run rate stands at at over $100 million.
Thinking Machines, an AI lab founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, is reportedly in negotiations to lead a $1 billion fundraising round, with Accel potentially taking the lead, according to a source cited by The Information. The potential investment would value the company at a minimum of $40 billion, though this valuation falls short of the $50 billion target Thinking Machines sought to achieve last year.
The company's annual revenue run rate is estimated at over $100 million, resulting in an extremely high revenue multiple for the $40 billion valuation. Accel and Thinking Machines have not yet commented on the reported discussions. In July, the company unveiled Inkling, an open-weight model that generates revenue through usage-based compute fees for adapting models on proprietary data using its Tinker platform.
The startup's previous fundraising round, a $2 billion investment, positioned the company at a $12 billion valuation, led by Andreessen Horowitz and joined by Nvidia, GV, Lightspeed, and Conviction Partners. The high-profile backing was primarily due to Murati's background and the involvement of former OpenAI researchers. Since its inception, Thinking Machines has experienced several departures from the co-founding team, with notable figures like Lilian Weng and Luke Metz returning to OpenAI.
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